A reader of this website emailed on Tuesday with a link to a social media site where I was being called “an atheist” because of columns I write that refer to convicted felon and sexual predator Donald Trump’s “criminal presidency.”
“Thompson is a known atheist who has written that he does not believe in God,” the post said. That claim is false. I believe in God. I have never written that I don’t. I just don’t believe in organized religion. I’m not alone.
Polls by Pew Research and the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) show sharp increases in the number of Americans who left religious denominations but not their belief in God.
According to the survey, the only major religious category experiencing widespread growth today is the religiously unaffiliated.
- In 2023, roughly three in four Americans identify with a faith tradition, including a majority of Americans (67%) who identify as Christian. Over the past decade, the proportion of the U.S. population who identifies as white Christian has declined from 46% in 2013 to 42% in 2023, while the proportion of Christians of color has remained steady (from 24% to 25%).
- Among Christian groups, Catholics as a whole continue to lose more members than they gain, though the retention rate for Hispanic Catholics (68%) is somewhat higher than for white Catholics (62%), who have experienced the largest decline in affiliation of any religious group.
- Around one-quarter of Americans (26%) identify as religiously unaffiliated in 2023, a 5 percentage point increase from 21% in 2013. Nearly one in five Americans (18%) left a religious tradition and became religiously unaffiliated, over one-third of whom were previously Catholic (35%) and mainline/non-evangelical Protestant (35%).
“After observing the growth of unaffiliated Americans for decades, our survey confirms that this trend is not slowing,” said Melissa Deckman, Ph.D., CEO of PRRI. “While most Americans are still religious, the ranks of the unaffiliated will continue to swell with both Americans who leave their religion — increasingly because of religious teachings about LGBTQ people — as well as those who are now being raised in religiously unaffiliated households.”
Religious disaffiliation and switching are at an all-time high, but the reasons for doing so have changed.
In 2016, PRRI published data that examined the rate of religious switching, referring to individuals who left their childhood faith tradition as adults. The analysis found the group that benefited most directly from religious switching in America was the religiously unaffiliated. In 2016, nearly one in five Americans (19%) switched from their childhood religious identity to become unaffiliated as adults, and relatively few Americans (3%) who were raised unaffiliated joined a religious tradition.
In 2023, we find that one in ten Americans (10%) report growing up without a religious identity, while 18% of Americans say they became unaffiliated after growing up in another religious tradition. Similar to 2016, very few Americans (3%) grew up without a religious identity and then joined a religion later in life.
Among all Americans in 2023, nearly two in ten (17%) describe themselves as “nothing in particular” similar to 2013 when 16% of Americans identified as such. By contrast, the numbers of both atheists and agnostics have doubled since 2013 (from 2% to 4% and from 2% to 5%, respectively).
Americans have grown less likely to attend church services over the past decade. In 2023, around one-quarter of Americans (24%) say they attend religious services, either virtually or in person, at least once a week, a 7 percentage point decline from 31% in 2013. Among Americans who attend religious services at least a few times a year, solid majorities report feeling closer to God (90%), experiencing religion in a community (79%), and instilling values in their children (79%) as very or somewhat important reasons for their personal attendance.
A top reason why religiously unaffiliated Americans report that they no longer identify with their childhood religion is because of the religion’s teachings about LGBTQ people (47%), up from 29% of unaffiliated Americans who left for that reason in 2016. There are strong party distinctions: The majority of religiously unaffiliated Democrats (61%) and 43% of independents cite this as a reason for leaving, compared with only 18% of unaffiliated Republicans.
Slightly more than three in ten religiously unaffiliated Americans say they no longer identify with their childhood religion due to clergy sexual abuse scandals (31%). Former Catholics are more likely than former non-Catholics to say they no longer identify with their childhood religion because of sexual abuse scandals (45% vs. 24%). The reason given by the most religiously unaffiliated Americans for leaving their faith tradition, however, is that they simply stopped believing in their religion’s teachings (67%).
Most religiously unaffiliated Americans are not looking for a religious or spiritual home.
Just four in ten unaffiliated Americans describe themselves as spiritual. Across party lines, 39% of religiously unaffiliated Democrats, 38% of independents, and 35% of Republicans consider themselves to be spiritual. Compared with atheists and agnostics, religiously unaffiliated Americans who identify as nothing in particular (45%) are the most likely to consider themselves spiritual.
The vast majority of the religiously unaffiliated appear content to stay that way — only 9% of religiously unaffiliated Americans say the statement “I am looking for a religion that would be right for me” currently describes them very or somewhat well.
I left the church of my youth years ago because it became “evangelical” and preached against gays, same sex marriage and other such practices. I have a first cousin who was married with children but came out as gay and married a man. They lived together happily for years. I do not consider them “sinners” as evangelical preachers claim.
My college education from The University of Virginia included a lot of information on the teachings and beliefs of Thomas Jefferson, the recognized author of the Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights and our Constitution. Jefferson argued for a clear separation of church and state in our democratic republic.
Jefferson believed that America should not be considered “a Christian nation,” because doing so alienated other religions in a free society. I agree. I believe in God, but I share the doubts of our Jewish friends who question the existence of a son of God. A Jewish lady I dated in my single days sent out Christmas cards. It read: “Merry Christmas — FOOLS.”
I read and studied the Bible as a young man. I’ve also read The Koran, which is a guidebook for the Islamic fait. I find more advocations of violence in the Bible than in the Koran, which preaches love of faith not condemnation of others.
I cannot, and will not, claim to have lived or followed a spiritual life. As a single man in the 1970s, I had intimate relations with a number of young women. I am a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for 32 years, one month and one day as this is written. A large part of my recovery includes seeking out those I may have harmed when I was drinking and make amends. The list was long. Many have forgiven me. Others have not. I accept that. I have sinned often in my life.
But my belief in God remains strong. I just don’t believe what I hear from too many pulpits of those who claim to know God or quote someone they have never actually met. Anyone who claims I am an atheist does not know or understand me or the increasing number of Americans who feel they can no longer trust a church or pastor.
Amy and I will celebrate 48 years together as man and wife later this year. We’ve had our ups and down, liks many unions. But our marriage is strong. So is our faith.
“Religion is faith, not law,” Jefferson wrote. “It should be a personal choice for each of us and not a mandate of any government or leader.”
Amen.